What's the difference between a crepe and a galette?
What's the difference between a crepe and a galette?
Technically, a crêpe is a thin pancake that's made in a special crêpe pan or on a griddle. The batter is made ahead so that the flour swells and the air from beating dissipates. Crêpes are fried in butter and either sprinkled with sugar or filled with more elaborate toppings like ham, cheese and eggs.
A galette is a form of crêpe made with buckwheat flour. But the word is also used to describe many flat round cakes of various sizes, including potato pancakes and open-faced fruit tarts with gathered edges. The notion of the galette is said to have been invented in the Neolithic era, when mushy cereal paste was spread over hot stones.
Recipe: White Chocolate Crepes With Fresh Raspberry Sauce (Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology)
Recipe: Spice Crepes With Meyer Lemon Applesauce (Cook & Eat)
A pavlova is the national dessert of New Zealand and Australia. A light, elegant disk of meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit, it's a snap to assemble.
Cornstarch and vinegar are often added to the meringue mixture before baking to give it a crisp exterior and a pillowy interior. You can top your pavlova with whatever kind of fruit you like -- kiwi, passion fruit, raspberries, peaches, or pomegranate seeds for Christmas, when it is often served.
The pavlova was named for Anna Pavlova, a lightfooted Russian ballerina, during her visit to Australia in 1929, though the New Zealanders claim to have invented it first.
Recipe: Pomegranate Pavlova With Mixed Fruit (Cookthink)
A cobbler is a baked fruit-based dessert that is a cousin to the crumble and the crisp. Unlike a crumble, which is topped with a dry crumbly streusel topping before baking, the crumble is covered in a batter that often involves eggs and milk.
Americans and Brits both make a habit of cobbler, but American cobblers -- frequently made from fresh apples, peaches, blackberries or cherries -- are more commonly eaten for dessert, with a topping that rises and forms a kind of giant dumpling. In the U.K., a cobbler is typically a savory dish like a lamb casserole, covered with a biscuit or scone topping that is spooned on into individual toppings across the top.
The American cobbler has nicknames like the Betty, Buckle, Sonker, Grunt, and Slump. New Englanders make Slumps and Grunts in a stove-top iron skillet, topping the fruit with dumplings. Buckles are made with yellow batter that's mixed with the filling. Sonkers are deep-dish cobblers from North Carolina. The Brown Betty is made with layers of fruit and bread or graham cracker crumbs, kind of like a fruity bread pudding.
A crumble is a fruit-based dessert with a crumbly topping called a streusel that's a mixture of flour, butter and sugar -- plus optional flavorings like cinnamon, vanilla extract, lemon zest or nuts -- that is baked until crisp. The flour, butter and sugar are combined until they form crumbs; some people like to add oats or nuts to the mixture.
Apple crumble is traditional, but you can make a crumble out of rhubarb, blackberries, plums or just about any fruit. A crumble is delicious warm or cold, plain or accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream, heavy cream or custard.
The crumble is said to have been invented in Britain during World War II, when food rationing made pie crusts an impossibility. Americans sometimes call the crumble a crisp.
